GENEVA, March 3. /TASS/. The European Union and the US have neglected the tragedy of Donbass residents for eight years, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office and Other International Organizations in Geneva Gennady Gatilov said on Thursday.
The Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights has been regularly discussing the situation in Ukraine for eight years, forty-five reports have been prepared based on the materials of the observation mission, the Russian envoy said. These materials registered the hardship of Donbass population, torture, arbitrary arrests, infringement of the national minorities’ rights. It was possible "to save the lives of Donetsk and Lugansk residents killed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and nationalists, [and] prevent the current escalation." "To that end, the EU and the US needed to assess these processes adequately and influence the Kiev authorities to encourage them to take moves to improve the situation in their own country and resolve the conflict in Donbass," Gatilov said. "Instead, for eight years you have turned a blind eye to the tragedy of this region and Ukraine as a whole."